Thanks, I find that people either love it or hate it. It has been interesting to hear people’s opinions and reasoning.

@@Karan19880 everyone thinks they are Peter Sagan until they do an FTP test. No, your FTP is not better than what think; and no, zwift is not harder than real life. It is what it is and you are probably not as good as you think you are. That is it. Just accept it and move on.

@@Karan19880 nah mate. It think that nothing is off. Just give it some time. I was a road cyclist for a while before going into Zwift and it was a hard transition. Maybe you just need some time to adapt. Maybe it will make sense in due time.

Some of the newer trainers, like the neo 2Ts actually can handle the 40/20 or even 30/30 intervals. The trouble is we would naturally want to increase cadence when the power requirements suddenly switches up. As we switch up cadence and torque, the trainer thought we are over the power requirements and would compensate by decreasing resistance. We meanwhile would try to bring the power back by riding harder. And how we do that? Further increase cadence. As a result, the trainer goes into a different spiral reducing resistance. Really, the trick about using erg mode successfully is to have a constant cadence. Some of us on noisier trainers would also try to keep trainer quite by riding at low flywheel speed. That would reduce flywheel momentum and thus its ability to keep speed. On some platform (say TrainingPeaks), you can also set expected cadence. I know Wahoo, up till gen 3 would just ignore that. But other trainers may take that into consideration when in Erg mode.

Ya doing workouts in ERG mode is a guaranteed way to get all the gold stars. ERG mode is hit or miss with people and I find some people, like myself, really don't like it. It's all personal preference.

I don't manage the trainer. I ride as I would outside and simple shift to change the effort

how do you lower the resistance on the fly? in erg mode?

It's definitely a personal preference. I know some people really like it and others don't. Can't be wrong so long as you are riding :)

Your experience is very common. I don't really have any suggestions to help you, maybe another comment has a suggestion. Your experience is one of the many reasons I never use ERG mode

Thx for replying

Free ride in the sense that you can choose the course you want to ride but in order to use ERG mode you need to be doing a workout in game.

Idk if this is still relevant for you but I just created a custom workout with one block of z2 for two hours, this allows me to just pedal along basically ignoring other riders

Yes

I find that the game tab has a mind of its own. If it its not their, try reloading the app. I have rides where it never shows up.

It depends on what you are looking to achieve. If you are riding for fitness then you are 100% correct. However, if you are training to race than learning to hold a steady power without any aid is a vital aspect of training. ERG mode only hurts your training if you are training to race

Haha, yup, that can quickly happen. Hoping your next attempt goes better.

@@EricAbbottTri question, so if I’m doing a Ramp test, I should not use erg and just use sim?

@@CycoWarriorx following for an answer, I’ve always just left it in one gear and let the trainer build the resistance. Turned the crank until I can’t no more.

Zwift won't let you.

Same today!!!! First time and couldnt go above 250.... Annoying!! So, it is this ERG?

Same today!! Thank you

I just opened UKposts to check I wasn’t crazy today

After a little practice I now know that you have to really pay attention to the zone transition. What I’ve been doing is really upping up the cadence about 3 seconds before transitioning into a harder zone to make it easier to “catch” the sharp resistance increase.

For a ramp test on Zwift you should not need to shift at all. It starts off easy in the beginning then Zwift controls the resistance as the test progresses. What trainer are you using?

@@EricAbbottTri Wahoo Kickr

Interesting, Zwift should simply take control of the resistance, no shifiting required. Not sure what to tell you with that one. Sorry

@@EricAbbottTri I haven't done another FTP test but I'll go thru all the settings and try again this week. Thanks for the responses

Ya happy to help. When you do it again make sure your trainer is connected as the controllable device and remember that in the beginning the test is easy so only having 100ish watts of resistance to start is normal. Don't shift, let the trainer increase the resistance for you as the test progresses

It is not perfect. Sometimes it takes a few refreshes to show up.

haha maybe at one point. Too many holiday cookies recently.

Don't know what you are talking about 😜

What's the issue with using ERG mode for a ramp test? I would have thought it would be just the ticket?

Why can't you shift gears to get that cadence?

How is it cheating? It’s for workout mode.

@@chrisgraham6031 How is it a workout if the trainer maintains the watts?

@@jslute It's not maintaining the watts, it's just automatically changing the resistance so the power remains constant with changes in cadence/flywheel speed. The idea of ERG is that you don't have to shift gears, or manually change resistance mode to hit a target power. It can also handy, as you can chose whether to hit your power targets at high or low flywheel speeds, which changes muscles used.

@@chrisgraham6031 So exactly when would you use it?I am new at this.

@@jslute So imagine you've got a VO2 max in session, where you're going from a power below threshold, up to 115% ftp. In standard mode, you either have to change up a load of gears to speed up the flywheel, or manually adjust the difficulty, or both. With ERG mode, you instead stay in the same gear and attack hard into the change. The turbo will automatically increase the resistance so the power needed to keep the flywheel at its current speed matches the power target of the interval. Think of it as having a coach manually adjusting the resistance of the turbo so that you always stay at the same power regardless of how quick your cadence is in a specific gear. You speed up, resistance goes down, and vice versa.